Does someone have the OPTIMAL export settings for an 720p HD H264 file that can be played in a Flash Video Player?

Thanks for the Compressor Settings, tbabcock.

I found that if you are outputting to FLV, having the right Flash codec and using the right FLV encoder can make a lot of difference. I recommend using Sorenson Squeeze for Flash, which comes with the codecs Sorenson Spark Pro and On2 VP6 Pro.

I know this is about Flash encoding and not FCP, but it helped save me some time and money on a recent project.

I was having trouble with some 24N footage which was captured for an online instructional course, and encoded using Flash Encoder 8. The native frame rate was causing the footage to have tiny jagged lines, which was very noticeable and the client wasn't happy.

Instead of doing a pulldown on all of the footage and re-encoding, I upgraded my FLV encoder to Squeeze which uses On2 VP6 Pro instead of On2 VP6, and it was able to handle the native frame rate no problem. For about $300 the footage looked a lot better, and only having to process the footage once saved time and helped us meet our deadline.

I have since used Squeeze for all my online videos, mostly shot in 1080i, which you can check out here:
www.utahhighdef.com/reel.html

I would like some optimal settings in squeeze for three things hoping someone might help. Chris or Jeremy maybe?
First - A flash file that is playable or streamed for online viewing. 25 mins in length and 640x360 in size. I have one that looks decent and file size is 188 MB. Current settings are 2 pass VBR, Data rate is 1000 and codec is MainConcept H.264. I did a deinterlace to discard the even field. Can I do better here?

Second - H.264 quicktime downloadable file. Same frame size, Data rate 2000kbps, same codec. 25 mins with a file size of 330 MB. This looks ok but for the size I think could be much better.

Third - H.264 quicktime downloadable file larger size of 1280x720, Data rate is 4000Kbps 2 pass and all the same things as the others. This file size 25 mins is 656 MB

I know it can be better with smaller sizes so hoping to get the optimal for a 25 min show. Thanks.

What do you have the frame rate at?

I exported the file from Final Cut as a Qucktime self contained. The Quicktime shows it as 1920x1080 29.97 frame rate. In squeeze I have it set to 1:1 thus 29.97.

Phillip, I'd be curious to see how cutting your frame rate down to 15fps would affect the total file size, it's something we have been doing for the newsroom at the church.